Information delivery system, advertisement delivery system, information delivery program, server, information delivery server, advertisement information delivery method and saver page display method

ABSTRACT

In an information terminal of a user, displayed contents on a monitor screen are optionally changed and a saver page is displayed by use of a browser.  
     An information delivery system is provided, which is constituted of a viewer PC, an information provider server, and an information delivery server for providing delivery information based on access from the viewer PC over a network. The information provider server transmits an HTML file to the viewer PC in response to being accessed by the viewer PC. When an entering operation is not executed for a predetermined period of time after the viewer PC displays the received HTML content on a display unit as display information, the viewer PC accesses the information delivery server via a network and automatically retrieves and displays delivery information on the display unit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a network system or the like fordelivering information, more particularly to the network system or thelike which provides information to a user connected to a network in asimilar manner to a screen saver displayed on a screen of a personalcomputer (PC).

[0003] 2. Background of the Invention

[0004] In a case where an operation such as entering is not carried outfor a personal computer (PC) for a while after the PC is made available,for example, a screen saver function has been heretofore made tooperate. In order to prevent burn-in of a screen of a cathode ray tube(CRT), by use of the screen saver function, when entering is notexecuted in the PC for a predetermined period of time, the screen isautomatically darkened and an animation or the like is displayed on thescreen. In order to use the screen saver function, a screen saverprogram of an OS-dependent program form is generally installed in eachPC.

[0005] Next, description will be made on an outline of the screen saverfunction. In the screen saver function, with entering to the PC, a timercount value at the time is reset, and new timer counting is started.When the timer count value reaches a time previously set (apredetermined time) without any entering to the PC, a predeterminedimage such as an animation is displayed on a monitor screen. Thereafter,when entering is executed in the PC, the monitor screen is restored toan original state, the timer count value is reset and then the timercounting is restarted.

[0006] Meanwhile, from a viewpoint of an advertisement delivery, whichis a form of information delivery, banner advertising is generallyperformed as the conventional advertisement delivery. In this form ofadvertising, an advertisement of a signboard type is displayed on a Webpage. Specifically, the banner advertising is utilized as displayadvertising for Web pages on a search site or the like of a certaindomain. The banner advertising is that advertisement information whichis attached to a part of a Web page of the search site, and shows highutilization since advertising cost is low for an advertiser. Inclick-through banner advertising, it is possible for a user by a clickoperation to move to a site of advertising information in the Web pagethat the user desires to look at. Thus, one-to-one marketing isachieved, which is a method of providing information customized for eachuser.

[0007] As another form of advertisement delivery, which is also a formof information delivery pop-up type advertisement delivery is commonlyknown. In the pop-up type form of advertisement delivery, a plurality oftarget advertisements are sequentially shown to the user in a pop-upmanner. Since a new window is opened for advertising, the pop-up typeadvertisement delivery is advantageous in that a comparatively largesized advertisement can be seen.

[0008] Furthermore, for example, there also exists technology for pushtype information delivery, such as PointCast Network service started byPointCast Inc. in the US. In the push-type form of information delivery,HTML contents of a WWW server are delivered to the Internet users by useof push technology.

[0009] In order to use an OS-dependent screen saver, a screen saverprogram must be installed in to each PC. For installation of the newscreen saver program on the PC, the user must carry out the installationby himself or herself. In such a case, the operation of the installationis complicated not only for a user unfamiliar thereto but also for asomewhat skilled user. Furthermore, when the displayed contents (ananimation or the like) on a monitor screen by a screen saver is desiredto change to another contents, another screen saver program must beagain installed on the PC. Therefore, the displayed contents on themonitor screen cannot be quickly changed when it is desired.

[0010] In the form of advertisement delivery by banner advertising,which also a form of information delivery, small advertising effect isobtained by the banner itself, and an advertisement image is small, sothat it is difficult to differentiate one advertisement from another. Inaddition, since banner advertising is directly added to a site forinserting the advertisement to be displayed, there is also a problemthat a design of the site for inserting advertisement is ruffled. In thepop-up type advertising, the advertisement can be seen in thecomparatively large size. However, since many windows are opened, a veryburdensome task of closing the windows is passed on to the user.Moreover, when the user wants to finish looking at the advertisements,the user is required to close the windows opened for advertising one byone. Such operation is intolerable for the user.

[0011] In the push type delivery like the PointCast Network service,client software needs to be installed in a PC terminal of the viewer.Moreover, depending on the way of using the dedicated client software,traffic on a corporate network is increased, for example, resulting inobstacles to communications for main business. Therefore, somecorporations have avoided such a service.

[0012] In addition, when the user desires to control the screen saver byoneself, the user needs to perform complicated operations such as resetof a set time for the screen saver that is installed in his or her owncomputer. Moreover, it was difficult to flexibly use the screen saver insuch a way that the screen saver was started depending on a situation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0013] The present invention is made to solve such technical problems,and the object is to generally manage changes of the displayed contentson the monitor screen.

[0014] Another object of the present invention is to make it possible tooptionally change the contents displayed on the monitor, and toeliminate the necessity of the user to reinstall programs to change thescreen saver on the user's terminal.

[0015] Still another object is to equip an information delivery in anetwork system with a high capability of information transmission.

[0016] Still another object is to efficiently deliver information in aone-to-one manner to enhance availability of information.

[0017] In order to achieve the foregoing objectives, a first aspect ofthe present invention is an information delivery system, via a network,which is constituted of a computer terminal, an information providerserver, and an information delivery server for providing delivery ofinformation in response to being accessed by the computer terminal. Theinformation provider server transmits a content in response to an accessby the computer terminal. The computer terminal accesses a predeterminedserver such as the information delivery server, via a network, andautomatically retrieves and displays delivery information when enteringoperation is not executed during a predetermined period of time after areceived content is displayed as display information. The presentinvention differs from a conventional screen saver function in itsobjectives and its constitution thereof. Since the primary object ofhaving a conventional screen saver function is to prevent burn-in of ascreen, a saver picture is naturally displayed over an entire screen. Incontrast the primary object of the present invention is to enhance theavailability of information, and the saver picture according to thepresent invention is displayed within a range of the screens provided byan internet browser . Therefore, the function, to which the presentinvention is applied, could be defined as being a “browser saver”. Itshould be noted that the browsers include software received andreproduced in data formats such as Real Player or Media Player developedby Real Networks Inc. in the US.

[0018] Further, it should be noted that the server can be transposed asa site and does not necessarily require a single server computerapparatus. A site could be for example constituted of a plurality ofserver computer apparatuses. On the other hand, functions of a pluralityof sites may be included in the server computer apparatus constituted ofa single piece of hardware. In other words, regarding the term “server”used in the present invention, it does not matter whether the term“server” indicates a single server computer apparatus or a plurality ofserver computer apparatuses described herein.

[0019] A second aspect of the present invention is an advertisementdelivery system for automatically delivering advertisements to a viewercomputer terminal, via a network. In the advertisement delivery system,an information receiving program is embedded in HTML formatted contentwhich is obtained by the viewer computer terminal via the network. Afterthe HTML formatted content, having the information receiving programembedded is displayed on the viewer computer terminal, based onpredetermined conditions, advertising information delivered in responseto being accessed by the viewer computer terminal is rendered to bedisplayed on a screen.

[0020] The information receiving program received via a network may beembedded in the HTML formatted content based on tag information providedin the HTML formatted content obtained by the viewer computer terminal.Such a constitution is preferable in that the function of the presentinvention can be obtained by just adding simple tag information writtenin one line, for example, to the HTML formatted content itself receivedvia the network.

[0021] The embedding of the information receiving program may beexecuted based on tag information, which is embedded in the HTMLformatted content on a relay server for relay of a server providing theHTML formatted content, or based on tag information which is embedded inthe HTML formatted content when the HTML formatted content passesthrough a provider for providing the viewer computer terminal with aconnecting service. Moreover, at the relay server or the provider, theinformation receiving program may be directly embedded, in place of thetag information. In these constitutions, by embedding tag information ina proxy type, the time and labor for embedding the tag information orthe like in the HTML formatted content itself can be saved.

[0022] The proxy type system is advantageous in that the function of thepresent invention can be provided regardless of a site, which the vieweraccesses. In principle, the tag or the program itself is embedded in thecontent of an information provider in the case of a delivery for theviewer accessing the site thereof. Therefore, it becomes possible for aprovider of a free information site to earn revenue from introducingviewers to other providers' sites. An information delivery programaccording to the present invention causes a computer to execute anentering operation judgment function for judging that an enteringoperation by a user is not executed for a predetermined period of timeunder a condition that a Web page obtained via a network is displayed; acontent obtaining function for obtaining a content from a predeterminedserver via the network in the case that it is judged that the enteringoperation is not executed by said entering operation judgment function;and a content display function for displaying the content obtained. Notethat the term “predetermined period of time” means also a period of timein the case where the timing for displaying the screen saver page(browser saver page) is set before the timing of changing the display tothe screen saver page.

[0023] It is preferable that the content display function switches thescreen from displaying the content of the displayed Web page so thatinformation such as advertisements can be displayed by a functionsimilar to that of a screen saver.

[0024] Moreover, in the content display function, in the case where apredetermined entering operation is executed by a user after the contentis changed to be displayed, a display restart function for restarting todisplay of the Web page can be further executed.

[0025] Furthermore, a computer can be further caused to execute acategory specifying function for allowing a user to specify a category,which the user desires to obtain by use of said content obtainingfunction; and a writing function for writing information regarding thecategory, which is specified by the category specifying function, into acookie as user information. As the category specifying function, thereexist a method of registering by separating categories into thecategories which viewer wants to be delivered and the categories, whichthe viewer does not want to be delivered and the like.

[0026] From another viewpoint, a third aspect of the present inventionis an information delivery program, which executes a predeterminedfunction for an HTML formatted content obtained via a network to bedisplayed on a computer. The information delivery program causes acomputer to execute a supervising means for supervising an operation bya viewer for a browser equipped with a computer in a state where theHTML formatted content is displayed by the browser; and a displayingmeans for displaying an obtained delivery content in exchange for theHTML formatted content when a viewer's operation to the browser is notexecuted under a predetermined condition. As the delivery content, thedelivery content previously embedded in the HTML formatted content maybe conceived.

[0027] The delivery content may be content specified in a server, whichprovides the HTML formatted content, or content which the browserobtains by accessing an information delivery server connected to thenetwork.

[0028] Moreover, the supervising means may be provided with a timerfunction operating by counting up after the HTML formatted content isdisplayed by the browser, or by counting up after a predeterminedentering operation is executed by a viewer, and the operation by theviewer may be supervised by use of the timer function.

[0029] A fourth aspect of the present invention is a server which isconnected to a network and provides a computer apparatus connected tothe network with a predetermined program. The server includes anaccepting means of a program receiving request for accepting a programreceiving request executed based on tag information contained in an HTMLcontent which is obtained by the computer apparatus via the network; anda program providing means for providing an information receiving programbased on the accepted program receiving request. The informationreceiving program is for accessing a predetermined server via thenetwork from the computer apparatus to pull a screen saver page (browsersaver page), which is to be displayed on the computer apparatus. Notethat the term “server” can be considered as a site, and is not limitedto a computer apparatus physically constituting a single unit.

[0030] An information delivery server, to which the present invention isapplied, includes an access accepting means for accepting an access froma computer apparatus based on an action of an information receivingprogram for HTML content displayed on the computer apparatus; and adelivery information providing means for providing the computerapparatus with a delivery content in response to the access from thecomputer apparatus, the delivery content being automatically displayedwhen a predetermined entering operation is not executed for thedisplayed HTML content.

[0031] The information delivery server is provided with a judgment meansfor judging whether or not the computer apparatus belongs to apredetermined group specified in a corporate contract or the like. Thedelivery information providing means provides the computer apparatuswith information of a delivery content within a range predetermined by aunit of the predetermined group. Accordingly, for example, it can beprevented by a unit of an enterprise that advertising information of acompetitor or the like, which is not desired to be delivered, is made toappear.

[0032] The fifth aspect of the present invention is an advertisinginformation delivery method for delivering advertising information to aviewer computer terminal via a network. The advertising informationdelivery method includes the steps of: embedding an informationreceiving program in the HTML content obtained by the viewer computerterminal; supervising an entering operation for the viewer computerterminal by use of the information receiving program after the HTMLcontent is displayed; and when the entering operation is not executedfor a predetermined period of time, delivering the advertisinginformation to the viewer computer terminal from a predetermined servervia network-based access by a viewer computer terminal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033]FIG. 1 is a block diagram for illustrating an example of a networksystem according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034]FIG. 2 is an entire constitution diagram for further illustratingthe network system according to the embodiment.

[0035]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a process executed by the viewer PC11.

[0036]FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a separate window type process inwhich a screen saver page is displayed on a window other than theoriginal Web page.

[0037]FIG. 5 is a view showing a state where a plurality of tasks areexecuted by the Web browser and a predetermined Web screen is changed toa saver mode.

[0038]FIG. 6 is a view showing a display example of the screen saverpage according to the embodiment.

[0039]FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are views for explaining filtering of deliverycontents to the viewer PC 11.

[0040]FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a domain filtering process executedin an information delivery server 15.

[0041]FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing another example regarding a triggerfor changing to a browser saver mode.

[0042]FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B are views for explaining a registeroperation of a user operation.

[0043]FIG. 11 is a view showing a flow of a saver interruption processdepending on a performance of the register operation.

[0044]FIG. 12 is a view showing a form example of a log file (DB) storedin an information delivery server.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0045] In the following, detailed description will be made on thepresent invention based on embodiments shown in accompanying drawings.

[0046]FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a networksystem, in which a browser saver according to the embodiment isexecuted. Generally, the viewer personal computer (viewer PC) 11 as aninformation terminal is often connected to an Internet service provider(ISP) server 12. The viewer PC 11 is provided with a Web browser 20 toperform transmitting, receiving, browsing or the like of various kindsof information via a network 13 such as the Internet. For the sake ofexplanation, one viewer PC 11 is shown in FIG. 1, but in reality, theplurality of viewer PCs 11 are connected to the network 13. Note that,as the viewer PC 11, in addition to the personal computers, employed areinformation terminals capable of browsing Web pages, informationterminals capable of connecting to the network 13 by wireless, such asPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA) and mobile phones.

[0047] On the network 13, an information provider server (site) 14 isprovided as a site for providing various kinds of information. Theinformation provider server 14 provides the Web browser 20 with variouskinds of information in response to a request (access) from the Webbrowser 20. In a communication between the Web browser 20 and theinformation provider sever 14, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) onthe Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) isemployed. The information provider server 14 transmits a World Wide Web(WWW) document of a page specified by the browser 20. In an exampleshown in FIG. 1, for the sake of explanation, only one informationprovider server 14 is shown, but in reality, the plurality ofinformation provider servers 14 exist on the network 13.

[0048] A WWW document is described in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).In specifying the WWW document by the Web browser 20, or linking the WWWdocument with another WWW document, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL)is used to specify the information provider server 14 having contentslocated. The WWW document as a hypertext can include a link (pointer) toanother associated information.

[0049]FIG. 2 is an entire constitution diagram for further illustratingthe network system according to the embodiment. In FIG. 2, aninformation delivery server (information delivery site) 15 is connectedto the network 13. The information delivery sever 15 provides the viewerPC 11 with an information receiving program which is a characteristic ofthe embodiment. In FIG. 2, the information provider server (informationprovider site) 14, which is connected to the network 13 shown in FIG. 1,and the viewer PC 11 provided with information are shown. A first stateand a second state of the viewer PC 11 are shown in FIG. 2. In the firststate, an HTML content has been received from the information providerserver 14 for the first time in response to a request of the Web browser20, and in the second state, another content (delivery content) has beendelivered from the information delivery server 15 by an operation of theinformation receiving program. Note that the information provider server14 and the information delivery sever 15 can be considered as sites.Each of the servers 14 and 15 is not limited to be a single servercomputer apparatus, and can be considered to take various physicalforms.

[0050] The information delivery server 15 is provided with aninformation receiving program file 31, which provides the Web browser 20with the information receiving program in response to PULL (retrievingoperation) from the Web browser 20. Furthermore, the informationdelivery server 15 is provided with a delivery program 32 and a deliveryinformation file 33. The delivery program 32 provides the viewer PC 11with delivery information in response to PULL operation from the Webbrowser 20 by the provided information receiving program. The deliveryinformation file 33 stores the delivery information such asadvertisements to be delivered. Furthermore, the information deliveryserver 15 is provided with a user content filter generating program 38to specify categories of information contents, which the viewer does notwant to be delivered, or which the viewer want to be preferentiallydelivered. Note that the information delivery server 15 may not beequipped to include all of these functions, but, for example, the serverproviding the information receiving program file 31 and the severproviding the delivery information can be constituted by separateservers.

[0051] Meanwhile, the viewer PC 11 is provided with a display unit 25for displaying received or delivered information. The Web browser 20 isprovided with an analysis program 21 and a cookie file 22 for providinginformation of the Web browser 20 to the information delivery server 15.The analysis program 21 interprets contents in the HTML format in orderto display the contents for a user as a viewer.

[0052] In the embodiment, the Web browser 20 of the viewer server PC 11accesses the information provider server 14 to pull contents, such as ahomepage described in the HTML, by use of the URL (PULL operation). Theinformation provider server 14 provides an HTML file (HTML formattedcontent) in response to the PULL operation from the Web browser 20. TheHTML formatted content includes a tag, and the tag contains informationfor pulling the information receiving program. As shown in the firststate of the viewer PC 11, the Web browser 20 having received the HTMLcontent accesses the information delivery server 15 based on the tagcontained in the HTML formatted content (PULL operation) to receive theinformation receiving program from the information receiving programfile 31 in the information delivery server 15.

[0053] In the Web browser 20, the HTML content is analyzed by theanalysis program 21, and the information is displayed by the displayunit 25. The information receiving program received as described abovemay be a program capable of being interpreted by standard browsers, suchas a program described in the Java Script that is an object orientedscripting language, or the like. In the case where the browser does nothave an interpreting function, or in the case where the interpretingfunction is set to be not available by the user oneself as the viewer,the information receiving program is simply recognized as comments inthe HTML, and the viewer can browse the HTML formatted content as usual.

[0054] In the second state of the viewer PC 11, the Web browser 20accesses the information delivery server 15 to pull the deliveryinformation by use of the information receiving program (PULLoperation). At this time, the Web browser 20 transmits the userinformation of the Web browser 20 to be provided for the informationdelivery server 15, the user information being stored in the cookie file22, to the information delivery server 15 by use of the cookie. Theinformation delivery server 15 causes the delivery program 32 to operatein response to the request from the Web browser 20, and provides the Webbrowser 20 with the delivery information, such as advertisements, fromthe delivery information file 33. At this time, categories of thedelivery information to be delivered are separated and provided based onthe user information of the cookie received from the Web browser 20.

[0055] In this second state of the viewer PC 11, unless a predeterminedentering operation is performed by the viewer, the viewer PC 11 pullsthe delivery information by use of the information receiving programevery 15 seconds, for example. Consequently, advertising information asthe delivery information, for example, appears on the browser in thescreen of the viewer PC 11, like a screen saver. In the followingdescription, the function employed in the embodiment is referred to as“screen saver” because the function is similar to that of the screensaver. However, since the information is displayed on the browser fordisplaying HTML contents, it can be said that the expression “browsersaver” is also preferable for the function.

[0056]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a process executed by the viewer PC11. First, the user as the viewer starts the viewer PC 11, and accessesa predetermined Web site on the information provider server 14 via thenetwork 13. The first Web page that is accessed and obtained by the Webbrowser 20 is referred to as “original Web page”. As a matter of course,the user can browse the original Web page and pull various kinds ofinformation or the like by operating a pointing device such as a mouseor an input device such as a keyboard (not shown).

[0057] In this way, the Web browser 20 is connected to the informationprovider server 14, the original Web page as the HTML content isobtained (step 101). The Web browser 20 allows the display unit 25including a CRT or a liquid crystal display (LCD) to display thereceived original Web page, while the Web browser 20 accesses theinformation delivery server 15 based on the tag contained in the HTMLcontent to receive the information receiving program. Sequentially, theWeb browser 20 starts execution of the information receiving program sothat a screen saver routine is executed. In such a manner, theinformation receiving program can be automatically embedded in the HTMLcontent based on the tag at the time of the delivery. Note that theprocess can be also constituted such that the information receivingprogram applied in the embodiment is previously embedded in the HTMLformatted content as the original Web page to omit the operation ofpulling the information receiving program from the information deliveryserver 15.

[0058] The screen saver routine of the information receiving programincludes a timer function. And the predetermined time (specified time)is set, and timer counting is started. In the Web browser 20 executingthe information receiving program, an entering operation on the viewerPC 11 by the user is supervised. When the operation from the inputdevice is executed, the timer is set (step 102). After the timersetting, the execution of the entering operation for the input device issupervised (step 103). With the entering operation, the routine isreturned to the step 102, and the timer is set. Without the execution ofthe entering operation, whether or not the timer is counted up is judged(step 104). In a state that the timer is not counted up, the enteringoperation is supervised in step 103. When the predetermined time ispassed and the timer is counted up without an operation to the enteringapparatus, the jump to image information (here, referred to as a screensaver page (browser saver page)) displayed like the screen saver isautomatically executed (step 105).

[0059] The jump to the screen saver page in step 105 is executed byreceiving the delivery information from the information delivery server15 by use of the information receiving program as shown in a secondstate of the viewer PC 11 in FIG. 2. Specifically, the Web browser 20displays the received content of the delivery information through theanalysis program 21 on the display unit 25. At this time, the deliveryprogram 32 of the information delivery server 15 functions so as toprovide, for example, information of a favorite site of the user, whichis set for each user, from the delivery information file 33 based on theuser information recognized by the cookie. Moreover, new contents can besequentially provided along the passage of time.

[0060] In addition to the aspect shown in FIG. 2, a constitution may beemployed, in which the Web browser 20 directly accesses the informationprovider server 14 which is another site to obtain the content displayedon the screen saver page. For example, in the case where the URL of thelink destination other than the information delivery server 15 iscontained in the information receiving program which performs a screensaver routine, the HTML content which is displayed following theoriginal Web page may be obtained directly from the information providerserver 14, which may be a server of another information provider,without using the information delivery server 15.

[0061] As the Web browser 20 provided with the viewer PC 11, used areseveral kinds of browser, such as Internet Explorer provided byMicrosoft Corp. in the US and Netscape Navigator provided by NetscapeCommunications Corp. in the US. Moreover, the browser of a differentversion functions differently. This embodiment allows the judgment whichprocess is executed in accordance with the kind of browser. The judgmentcan be executed on the information delivery server 15, as well as on theviewer PC 11. In the case of the judgment on the information deliveryserver 15, the program to be embedded is changed in accordance withheader information of the HTTP request. In the case of the judgment onthe viewer PC 11 of the client side, the several kinds of theinformation receiving program are previously embedded in the HTMLformatted content corresponding to the several kinds of browser. Then,the program executed on the viewer PC 11 obtains information of thebrowser executed at the time, and the program to be executed can bedecided.

[0062] After jumping to the screen saver page in step 105 in FIG. 3,within the information receiving program of the Web browser 20, it isdetermined whether the entering operation for the input device has beenexecuted or not (step 106). If no entering operation has been executed,while awaiting such execution the screensaver pages are sequentiallydisplayed. . For example, the displayed content can be made toperiodically change to another screen saver page, or to automaticallyjump to another screen saver page, each time the predetermined period oftime (15 seconds) has been passed. With the entering operation, thedisplayed content is returned to the page just before the screen saverpage (hereinafter, referred to as last page), which is now the originalWeb page (step 107). The routine is returned to step 102, and the timersetting is re-executed. The case where the displayed content issequentially changed to another screen saver page is not necessarilylimited to the case where the URL thereof is changed. In reality, thestep can be constituted such that only the content, such as a Flash oran image file, displayed in the page is changed without changing theURL.

[0063] Note that, as the method of returning to the last page shown instep 107, a cache function equipped with the Web browser 20 may be used.In the case where the Web browser 20 does not have the cache function,in the case where the cache function is set to be off (no Cache in Metatag) in the page having been displayed, or the like, the URL of the lastpage may be satisfactorily made to be stored in the informationreceiving program for returning thereto. Moreover, in returning to thelast page, the action of returning to the last page or not can beperformed depending on the kind of the entering operation. For example,the following setting can be made. In the case where the enteringoperation by the user is a predetermined operation such as depressing ofthe enter key or a space key, the displayed page is not returned to thelast page. Only in the case of the other operations, the displayed pageis returned to the last page. In such a constitution, a predeterminedaction can be performed for the Web page displayed as the screen saverpage. For example, when a target page further linked with the screensaver page is required to be displayed regarding the information such asadvertisements displayed in the screen saver page, the specified keyoperation enables the predetermined action to occur without return tothe original Web page. Thereafter, by disconnection of the Web browser20 and the information provider server 14, the subroutine of the screensaver shown in FIG. 3 is terminated.

[0064] Note that there exist several methods of obtaining the deliveredinformation (content). In one of the methods, for example, the contentto be displayed on the viewer PC at the time when the screen saver isdisplayed is previously specified in the information provider server 14(for example, specifying the URL, receiving the content, or the like),and when the Web page is obtained in step 101, the specified content tobe displayed as well as the HTML formatted content are received andstored by the client. In another method, as described above, the Webbrowser 20 of the client side accesses the information delivery server15 and obtains the delivered information.

[0065] As for the timing of obtaining the display information, in orderto realize smooth display change, it is possible to start loading of thedelivery content several seconds before the timing of actual delivery ofthe information within the information receiving program. Accordingly,it becomes possible to change the display at the moment of changing tothe screen saver mode.

[0066]FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a separate window type process inwhich the screen saver page is displayed on another window than theoriginal Web page. Step 111 to step 114 shown in FIG. 4 are similar tostep 101 to step 104 shown in FIG. 3, respectively. Specifically, theWeb browser 20 is connected to the information provider server 14 toobtain the Web page (step 111); the timer is set (step 112); theentering operation is supervised (step 113); and the end of thespecified time is judged by whether or not the timer is counted up (step114). Sequentially, when the specified time passes without operationfrom the input device, the screen saver page is opened on anothermaximized window (step 115).

[0067] Thereafter, in the Web browser 20, whether or not the enteringoperation from the input device is executed is judged (step 116).Without the execution of the entering operation, the screen saver pagecontinues to be displayed. At this time, as for displaying of the screensaver page, a constitution can be used, in which another Web page isdisplayed after each predetermined period of time such that informationis periodically changed. When the entering operation is detected in step116, the window of the screen saver page is closed (step 117), and thewindow of the original Web page is remained, and then the process isreturned to step 112.

[0068] Note that the following constitution can be employed. Thejudgment of execution of the entering operation shown in step 113 isomitted. When the passage time (specified time) of step 114 is passedafter the Web page is displayed, jumping to the screensaver page iscompulsorily performed. For example, regardless of execution of theentering operation by a user, when it is judged that the Web page hasbeen displayed for more than a certain period of time, changing to thesaver mode is compulsorily executed for displaying advertisements. Forexample, the advertisement content is delivered for 15 seconds, and thenthe display is automatically returned to the original Web page. Howeverduring advertisement delivery, the original Web page will not redisplayon the screen even when the user executes a mouse operation. Thereforefor example, a mouse click during the advertisement delivery, can beused to display a specified Web page such as the advertisers own Webpages. Use of such a constitution thereof, could greatly enhance thevalue of advertisement delivery.

[0069] Accordingly, in the alternative window type process shown in FIG.4, even when the screen saver page is displayed, the original Web pagecan be remained to be displayed. Moreover, unlike the conventionalpop-up advertising, another window is not displayed each time thecontent is changed, but the screen saver page is changed for each ofdelivering content. Thus, the annoyance of the user can be reduced.

[0070] When the cache function is set to be off in the Web browser 20 orthe original Web page, the case, in which returning to the original Webpage is impossible, can be conceived. However, the display of the screensaver page by use of another window page can be utilized as asubstitution means for holding the URL. Specifically, for example, whenthe cache function is set to be off, in a state where the original Webpage is opened, another window of the same size is opened just over theoriginal Web page for displaying the screen saver page. When theentering operation is detected on the screen saver page, the windowdisplaying the screen saver page can be closed.

[0071] As described above, in the embodiment, when the enteringoperation by the user is not executed for the displayed original Webpage for a predetermined period of time, it is made possible to changeto the information delivery system of a screen saver type. In otherwords, without the operation of installing the program by the user ofthe viewer PC 11 with particular conscious, new delivered content can bedisplayed as a screen saver.

[0072] The foregoing information delivery technology can be applied tothe advertisement delivery by conceiving various contents foradvertising as the delivery information (screen saver page) of thescreen saver type according to the embodiment. For example, on theviewer PC 11, during the time of browsing the Web page in which the tagfor the information delivery program or the information delivery programitself is embedded, if no operation is executed for the viewer PC 11 fora certain period of time, such as in cases where the user is engagedwith the job not using the PC; the user is on a break; the user is notat the desk; or the user turning his or her back on the PC has aconversation with others, advertisements can be made to automaticallyappear on the viewer PC 11 as a screen saver.

[0073] In the advertisement delivery using the information deliveryprogram, the advertising content is not displayed on the original Webpage unlike the banner advertising. Therefore, modification of thedesign of the original Web page, displacement of the existing banner, orthe like becomes unnecessary. Moreover, unlike the pop-up advertising,another window is not opened at each time of changing to another Webpage, but the displayed page itself is changed to the advertisingpicture. Therefore, the annoyance of the user in the pop-up advertisingcan be eliminated. Furthermore, the advertising content can be displayedon the entire screen, thus providing high capability of informationtransmission to the user like a TV commercial. Still furthermore, it canbe set by the user so that only advertisements of the categories thatthe user by himself or herself desires to see are made to appear, forexample, by use of the cookie. Accordingly, for the side of users seeingadvertisements, only necessary advertisements can be obtained, and forthe side of enterprises delivering the advertisements, the efficiency ofthe advertisement delivery can be enhanced.

[0074] Since the advertisement delivery is made as the screen savertype, the advertisement is not displayed during the operation on thebrowser. Upon restarting the operation, the PC can be returned to theoriginal state without imposing any particular burdensome task on theuser, thus lowering the level of annoyance afforded to the user.Furthermore, as an information transmission means, since theadvertisement is displayed in a comparatively large size, informationtransmission to targets in a wider range can be performed, including thePC user himself or herself and people around the PC user. Theadvertisement has heretofore targeted on only the Internet user. Whenthe information amount displayed on the browser for a day is consideredas resources, however, according to the embodiment, the resources havingbeen wasted before can be effectively utilized.

[0075]FIG. 5 is a view showing a state where a plurality of tasks areexecuted by the Web browser 20 and a predetermined Web screen is changedto the saver mode. On the display screen 60 of the display, a first Webscreen 61 and a second Web screen 62 are displayed. Here, it is assumedthat an access to the second Web screen 62 is performed by the user, andthe operation for the first Web page 61 has not been performed for apredetermined period. As shown in FIG. 5, the first Web screen 61 ischanged to the screen saver mode (browser saver mode), and displays anadvertising page as a screen saver page (browser saver page) in place ofthe Web page. Even when the screen for the e-mail or the like isdisplayed in place of the second Web screen 62, the process is performedin a similar manner.

[0076]FIG. 6 is a view showing a display example of the screen saverpage of the present embodiment. As the screen saver page, provided arean advertisement area 41, in which the delivered Web pages are displayedin a changing manner along the passage of time and an operation area 42,in which operations by the user can be accepted. Note that: theoperation area 42 may not be provided; the approximately entire screenmay be served as the screen saver page; and the acceptance of theoperation by the user may be enabled by a predetermined key operation asdescribed above.

[0077] When the user as the viewer moves a cursor into the advertisementarea 41 by use of a mouse, for example, it is judged that the enteringoperation shown in step 106 is executed, and then the screen is returnedto the picture of the original Web page. However, even when the usermoves the cursor into the operation area 42, the screen does not returnto the original page. The user can access a desired screen, for example,by clicking the jump button 43 or the user set button 44. For example,when the jump button 43 is depressed, the screen jumps to a homepage ofan advertiser whose advertisement is displayed on the advertisement area41. When the user set button 44 is depressed, the user can choosecategories of the advertisements which the user desires to see.

[0078]FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are views for explaining filtering of deliverycontents to the viewer PC 11. For example, the views correspond to thecase where the user set button 44 has been depressed in FIG. 6. The useras the viewer can specify the categories of the information contentswhich are not desired to be delivered or which are desired to bepreferentially delivered. In FIG. 7A, a delivery restriction screen 51and a delivery set screen 52 are shown, which are displayed on thedisplay unit 25 of the viewer PC 11 simultaneously or separately. In thedelivery restriction screen 51, the viewer chooses the categories of theinformation contents which the viewer does not want to be delivered, andthen depresses a transmit button 53. Moreover, in the delivery setscreen 52, the viewer chooses the categories of the information contentswhich the viewer wants to be preferentially delivered, and thendepresses the transmit button 54. When the categories are chosen and thetransmit buttons 53 and 54 are depressed, the Web browser 20 writes theresult of the choice as filter information into the cookie. The domainname written in the cookie at this time is the information deliveryserver 15. The cookie information is prepared in such a manner as torefer to the accessing of the information delivery server 15. Thus, thefiltering of the contents can be performed.

[0079]FIG. 7B shows an example of bit string information recorded in thecookie. In this example, a bit string having bits as many as the numberof kinds of categories is formed, and each bit indicates a categorythereof. Here, the bit corresponding to the category to which the viewerindicates his or her intention of “not want to see” is set to be on. Thebit string information shown in FIG. 7B is recorded in the cookie of thebrowser of the each viewer such as the Web browser 20. The deliveryprogram 32 of the information delivery server 15 can choose the deliverycontent based on the cookie information, which is transmitted to theinformation delivery server 15 each time the viewer accesses theinformation delivery server 15. The same category bits are given to thedelivery content, and whether or not the delivery content coincides withthe filter condition of the user is judged based on the condition thatthe logical product (BIT AND) is more than zero.

[0080] The cookie information, once written is transmitted whenever theviewer re-accesses a page on the domain, unless the viewer does not wishto transmit the cookie information. As a standard of the cookieinformation, the program operating under a certain domain cannot referor rewrite the cookie information of the other domains. In thisembodiment, the delivery program 32 deciding the contents to bedelivered is located on the information delivery server 15 which is acomputer on the network 13, and the domain of the server to which thecookie information is written and the domain of the information deliveryserver 15 are made to coincide with each other. Therefore, the contentsbased on the user information can be delivered. Moreover, the server inwhich the cookie information is written and the information deliveryserver are not necessarily operated on the same machine. For it does notmatter that both are physically divided, unless the page having thecookie written and the information delivery program for choosing thedelivery contents operate as contents in the same domain.

[0081]FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a domain filtering process executedin the information delivery server 15. The domain filtering process isto materialize the needs for exchanging the delivery contents orlimiting the categories of the delivery contents by the user group unitsuch as an enterprise unit. The delivery program 32 of the informationdelivery server 15 registers the IP network address or the domain whichare used by the group desiring to control the delivery contents, such asa corporation, in a database on the information delivery server 15.

[0082] First, the information delivery server 15 recognizes the groupsuch as a company, to which the user as the viewer belongs, based on theuser IP address contained in the HTTP request header. In thisembodiment, the cookie information can be made to contain a corporatecontract set cookie for indicating whether or not the corporations areunder contract and the category filter (cookie filter) for personalinformation. Whether or not the corporate contract set cookie is in therequest transmitted from the Web browser 20 is judged (step 201). Withthe corporate contract set cookie, the contents of the URL decided atthe time of contract are delivered to the viewer PC 11 (step 202).Without the corporate contract set cookie, whether or not the corporatecontract to the recognized group exists is judged (step 203).Specifically, whether or not the recognized user IP address is in tableinformation storing information of groups under corporate contract isjudged. With the corporate contract to the group, the corporate contractset cookie is set (step 204), and then the contents at the URL decidedat the time of contract are delivered to the viewer PC 11 (step 202). Bysetting the corporate contract set cookie in step 204, in the case whererequests come from the same user hereafter, processing of step 203 andstep 204 can be omitted. In the case with the corporate contract, sinceonly the contents at the URL decided at the time of contract aredelivered, information which an enterprise does not want to appear onthe viewer PC 11, being used by employees of the enterprise, can beprevented from appearing on the screen. The information which theenterprise does not want to appear includes, for example, contents ofcompetitors and contents of entities not relevant to the operation ofthe business of the user.

[0083] Without the corporate contract in step 203, it is determinedwhether the cookie filter as a personal filter has been set or not (step205). In the case where the cookie filter is set, a category conditionfor delivering is added to a choice condition by the user contentsfilter generating program 38 (step 206), and then the process proceedsto step 207. In the case where the cookie filter is not set in step 205,the process proceeds directly to step 207.

[0084] In step 207, whether or not the Flash is acceptable isdetermined. The Flash developed by the Macromedia Inc. in the USenlarges expression ability regarding multimedia information such asanimations. Regarding the viewer PC in which the Flash is acceptable, inorder to preferentially make the Flash contents to appear, the usercontents filter generating program 38 sets a choice field in thedatabase to FLASH_URL (step 208), and then the process proceeds to step210. In the case where the Flash is not acceptable, in order to make theusual HTML contents to appear, the choice field in the database is setto HTML_URL (step 209), and then the process proceeds to step 210.

[0085] Note that, though an explanation has been made regarding theFlash, in step 207, the type of medium for the contents to be delivered,(such as animations, audio, Flash, static images, and characterimages)are prioritized, and the type of medium is selected in accordancewith the performance capability of the viewer's. For example, it isassumed that the media are prioritized in an order of animations, audio,Flash, . . . , and so on. In the case where the viewer browser iscapable of accepting animations, animations can be delivered. Meanwhile,in the case where the browser is capable of accepting audio and Flash,but not animations, the audio contents can be delivered.

[0086] In step 210, using a site ID for identifying the site whichprovides the original Web page and the cookie filter as keys, FLASH_URLas MAX (the number of delivery times GAP) is obtained from a deliverytable. For example, in use of a system in which advertisers are chargedbased on the number of delivery times, when the deliveries of a certainnumber or more have been performed, some advertisers do not want to becharged for more delivery operations. In a case like this, by writingthe maximum delivery number to the cookie, the condition of the deliverynumber can be set for each customer as the advertiser or for each URL.

[0087] In step 211, the database is processed by the Structured QueryLanguage (SQL). A record which meets with the conditions of the Flashinformation, the cookie information, the delivery number, and the siteID is extracted. When the record does not exist, that is, when theconditions are not agreement with any record and the record of thecontent to be delivered does not exist (there is no advertisement forappearing), a predetermined particular or specified content is delivered(step 212). When the record exists, a delivery result of the selectedcontent ID is counted up (step 213). Since FLAME_TYPE for regulating thewhite or black of the background color, button positions, or the like isspecified for each site, an HTML template specified for each site isread (step 214). And then, the selected content is embedded into theread template to return to the viewer PC 11 (step 215). Note thatreturning of the content described above does not necessarily mean thatthe content itself in the program form is returned. Only a storinglocation (URL) of the content may be returned.

[0088]FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing another example regarding a triggerfor changing to the browser saver mode. As for the method of displayingthe saver page, here, a Web browser 20 displays a Web page (step 301).In this state, it is determined whether a specified operation such asdepressing of an escape (ESC) key, for example, has been executed or notis determined (step 302). If the specified operation has not beenexecuted, the Web browser awaits this operation, but when the prescribedoperation is made, the Web browser jumps to the screen saver page(browser saver page) (step 303). As such when a particular key or thelike is depressed while the user browses the Internet contents on theWeb browser 20, the Web browser 20 can be forced into a saver mode.Thereafter, it is determined whether the entering operation such as amouse click has been executed by the user for a task (a window inexecution) which the Web browser 20 performs (step 304). When theentering operation is executed, the process returns to step 301 todisplay the first Web page.

[0089] By use of the above described constitution, for example, when theuser is to be away from the desk, the user can control and protect thecomputer screen by himself or herself. The complicated operation hasbeen heretofore required, such as resetting of the set time of thescreen saver installed in the computer, while it has been difficult toflexibly use the screen saver by the user intention depending on thesituation in such a way that the screen saver function is immediatelystarted. By the foregoing constitution, the screen saver can be flexiblystarted depending on the situation, and the effect can be exerted in thecase where the user does not want the other person to see his or her owncomputer screen, or the like. Furthermore, the conventional effect ofpreventing burn-in of the screen can be improved.

[0090] Next, description will be made on an action in returning from thebrowser saver mode (screen saver mode) to the normal mode.

[0091]FIG. 10A, FIG. 10B and FIG. 11 are views for explaining acustomizing function of the user entering operation for interruption tothe saver. FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B are views for explaining a registeringwork of the user operation; FIG. 10A shows a process flow thereof; andFIG. 10B shows a user operation register page displayed on the screen.FIG. 11 is a view showing a flow of the saver interruption processdepending on the performance of the register work. The processes in themethod of displaying a saver page are executed on the Web browser 20 byuse of a program provided from the information provider server 14, forexample.

[0092] In registering the user entering operation, as shown in FIG. 10A,first, a connection to the user operation register page is made (step401), and whether or not the user key register has been made isdetermined (step 402). When the user key register has been made, theuser register operation is read out from the cookie (cookie file 22)(step 403), and the user operation register page as shown in FIG. 10B isdisplayed. The process then proceeds to step 404. In FIG. 10B, “mousemovement” is selected as the entering operation for returning from thesaver mode. If the user key has not been registered in step 402, theuser operation register page is displayed but not highlight is made forany particular portion. The process then proceeds to step 404. After theselection of the register operation, in which the particular key fromthe user is specified (step 404), depressing of the OK button is waited(step 405). For example, when the cancel button, not the OK button, isdepressed, the user register work is terminated. When the OK button isdepressed, the operation selected in step 404 is written in the cookie(cookie file 22) (step 406), and the process is terminated. As describedabove, the user can individually customize and register the operationfor returning from the saver page to the original page (for jumping tothe target page).

[0093] The process of returning from the saver mode to the original Webpage is performed as follows. As shown in FIG. 11, in a state where thesaver page is displayed, it is determined whether a user keyregistration is made or not (step 501). When the user key registrationis made, the user register operation is read out from the cookie (cookiefile 22) (step 502), and the registered entering operation is waited(step 503). When the registered entering operation is executed,returning to the original Web page is executed (step 505), and then thesubsequent steps such as the timer setting are carried out (step 506).When the user key registration is not made in step 501, the specifiedentering operation is waited (step 504). When the specified enteringoperation is performed, returning to the original Web page is executed(step 505), and then the subsequent steps are carried out (step 506). Asdescribed above, the trigger for returning from the saver mode to theoriginal Web page can be made such that the returning action is carriedout only when the specified entering operation is executed by the user.Conversely, returning from the saver mode to the original Web page isnot performed until the particular operation is executed. Accordingly,any person does not know the key other than the person who registeredthe key for returning to the original page, thus enabling a simplescreen lock function to be performed.

[0094] Next, description will be made on a process related to a sessionexecuting on the information delivery server 15, for example. In theembodiment, a session ID is assigned at each time of changing from thenormal Web page to the saver page on the server side (informationdelivery server 15), and recorded in a database (DB) or a log file as alog on the information delivery server 15. The term “session” hereindicates a series of conversation between the browser (Web browser 20)and the delivery server (information delivery server 15) after changingfrom the normal Web page to the saver page till returning to theoriginal Web page. For example, in the case of “normal Web page[→delivery server→saver page 1→delivery server→saver page 2→deliveryserver→saver page 2→] normal Web page [43 delivery server→saver page1→delivery server→saver page 2→delivery server→saver page 3→] normal Webpage”, the portion indicated by the bracket [ ] is a session of oneunit. The session ID is an identifier for identifying the individualsession indicated by the bracket [ ].

[0095]FIG. 12 is a view showing a form example of the log file (DB)stored in the information delivery server 15. Here, the session ID isassigned as well as the information of the user IP address, originalpage URL, delivery time, and the like. The same session ID is assignedto the forth, sixth, and seventh rows, which can be understood to be thesame session. The information delivery server 15 determines whether ornot the session ID is set in a call parameter of the delivery requestfrom the Web browser 20 on the client side. When the session ID is notset, the information delivery server 15 decides that the session is new,or changing from the normal Web page to the saver page is performed forthe first time, and creates the identifier for identifying all thesessions to return the identifier by embedding the identifier in theHTML page to be returned.

[0096] As described above, since changing between the normal Web pageand the saver page are managed by assigning the sessions ID, the numberof continuous delivery times can be obtained. Even in the case where avalue of the HTTP Refferrer variable, which is a character stringindicating the URL of a link origination, is unstable, or even in thecase where the delivery server is accessed via a proxy server, thesession can be accurately recorded. Moreover, for each session, thedelivery order of contents can be analyzed thereafter. For example, itis highly possible that the first and the last contents delivered in thesession are seen by the viewer. Especially, it can be said that the lastcontent delivered is surely seen because the viewer performs thespecified entering operation during the time of delivering the content.On the other hand, it is highly possible that the contents delivered tothe Web browser 20, which is left operating at midnight, is not seen. Insuch a case, for example, it is made possible that the number ofdelivery times in the session in which the number of continuous deliverytimes is more than 100 is counted.

[0097] Note that, although the case where the tag information is set inthe HTML formatted content is shown in the embodiment in FIG. 2, aconstitution can be employed, in which the tag information is embeddedin the HTML formatted content produced at the time of providing thecontent (proxy type). For example, there exist a system in which the taginformation is embedded at a relay server for the information providerserver 14 at the time of providing the content, a system in which thetag information is embedded in the HTML formatted content at a provider(ISP server 12 shown in FIG. 1) at the passage thereof, or the like, theprovider being for providing the viewer PC 11 with a connecting serviceto the Internet. Moreover, as the proxy type constitution, the tag canbe automatically inserted at a gateway apparatus for the Internet, suchas a router, at home or an office. In the case of employing theforegoing constitution, it becomes possible to decide for each home oroffice whether or not the function is embedded. The proxy typeconstitution is advantageous in that the time and labor for embeddingthe tag information in the individual HTML formatted content can besaved. Furthermore, for example, a constitution can be employed, inwhich the information receiving program itself is embedded in the HTMLformatted content, instead of the tag information in one line. In thiscase, the operation of the viewer PC 11 to pull the informationreceiving program becomes unnecessary.

[0098] An advantageous point of the proxy server is that it not onlyprovides contents from a specified information delivery server 15 (thesite in which the information receiving program is introduced), but itcan provide contents passing through the proxy apparatus, such as theinformation providing service of the screen saver type according to theembodiment. The proxy type has an advantage in saving the time and laborfor embedding the tag for the particular site. However, the Web server(software) has a function of adding header or footer information all atonce, and the operation of embedding the tag is not executed for eachpage because this function is used. The tag is added all at once for aunit such as a particular site and directory.

[0099] As described above, according to the embodiment, in the casewhere the predetermined entering operation is not executed by the inputdevice, during the predetermined period of time (specified time) afterthe Web browser 20 obtains the HTML contents as a Web page, the Webbrowser 20 is allowed to automatically change the Web page to the screensaver page. Therefore, the screen saver picture can be automaticallydisplayed without the installation of the screen saver program(information receiving program). In addition, since the Web browser 20is allowed to automatically change the displayed content from theoriginal Web page to the screen saver page, the screen saver can begenerally managed. Moreover, the management and operation of contents ofthe screen saver pages can be performed on the information deliveryserver 15 side.

[0100] Furthermore, since the management of the screensaver pages(displayed contents) is performed on the information delivery server 15side, as descried above, there is an effect that the latest contents canalways be transmitted, while audio, complicated movies, and the like, aswell as simple images can be provided to be outputted and displayed. Theuse of the screen saver page as an advertising medium enablesadvertising for a number of unspecified users.

[0101] As described above, according to the present invention, in theinformation terminal of the user, the displayed contents on the screenof the monitor can be optionally changed.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information delivery system, comprising: acomputer terminal; and an information provider server, wherein saidcomputer terminal and said information provider server are connectedwith each other via a network; said information provider servertransmits content to said computer terminal in response to beingaccessed by said computer terminal; and said computer terminal accessesa predetermined server via a network, and automatically retrievesdisplay delivery information, in the case where an entering operation isnot executed for a predetermined period of time after said computerterminal displays the received contents as display information.
 2. Theinformation delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising: aninformation delivery server connected to the network, wherein saidinformation delivery server provides the delivery information inresponse to being accessed by said computer terminal.
 3. Anadvertisement delivery system for automatically deliveringadvertisements to a viewer computer terminal via a network, comprising;an information receiving program embedded in an HTML formatted contentwhich is obtained by the viewer computer terminal via the network,wherein advertisement information, which is delivered in response toaccess by the viewer computer terminal, is displayed on a screen of theviewer computer terminal based on predetermined conditions, after theHTML formatted content having said information receiving programembedded is displayed on the viewer computer terminal.
 4. Theadvertisement delivery system according to claim 3, wherein saidinformation receiving program received via the network is embedded inthe HTML formatted content, based on tag information provided in theHTML formatted content obtained by the viewer computer terminal.
 5. Theadvertisement delivery system according to claim 3, wherein saidinformation receiving program itself is embedded in the HTML formattedcontent, in any one case of a case where the HTML formatted contentpasses through a relay server for relay of a server providing the HTMLformatted content, and a case where the HTML formatted content passesthrough a provider for providing the viewer computer terminal with aconnecting service.
 6. The advertisement delivery system according toclaim 3, wherein the information receiving program is embedded based ontag information which is embedded in the HTML formatted content on arelay server for relay of a server providing the HTML formatted content,or based on tag information which is embedded in the HTML formattedcontent at the time the HTML formatted content passes through aprovider, the provider providing the viewer computer terminal with aconnecting service.
 7. An information delivery program, causing acomputer to execute: an entering operation judgment function for judgingthat an entering operation by a user is not executed for a predeterminedperiod of time under a condition that a Web page obtained via a networkis displayed; a content obtaining function for obtaining content from apredetermined server via the network in the case that it is judged thatthe entering operation by a user is not executed by said enteringoperation judgment function; and a content display function fordisplaying the content obtained by said content obtaining function. 8.The information delivery program according to claim 7, wherein thecontent is displayed in place of the displayed Web page in said contentdisplay function.
 9. The information delivery program according to claim8, causing a computer to further execute a display restart function forrestarting to display the Web page in the case where a predeterminedentering operation is executed by a user, after the content is displayedin place of the displayed Web page by said content display function. 10.The information delivery program according to claim 7, causing acomputer to further execute: a category specifying function for allowinga user to specify a category which the user desires to obtain by use ofsaid content obtaining function; and a writing function for writinginformation regarding the category specified by said category specifyingfunction into a cookie as user information.
 11. An information deliveryprogram for executing a predetermined function on an HTML formattedcontent obtained via a network and displayed on a computer, said programcausing a computer to operate: a supervising means for supervising anoperation by a viewer for a browser equipped with a computer in a statethat the HTML formatted content is displayed by the browser; and adisplaying means for displaying an obtained delivery content in place ofthe HTML formatted content in the case where the operation by the viewerfor the browser is not executed under a predetermined condition.
 12. Theinformation delivery program according to claim 11, wherein the deliverycontent is any content specified in a server side providing the HTMLformatted content, and content which the browser obtained by accessingan information delivery server connected to the network.
 13. Theinformation delivery program according to claim 11, wherein thesupervising function is provided with a timer function operating bycounting up after the HTML formatted content is displayed by thebrowser, or by counting up after a predetermined entering operation isexecuted by a viewer, and the operation by the viewer is supervised byuse of the timer function.
 14. A server which is connected to a networkand provides a computer apparatus connected to the network with apredetermined program, said server comprising: an accepting means of aprogram receiving request for accepting a program receiving requestexecuted based on tag information contained in an HTML content which isobtained by the computer apparatus via the network; and a programproviding means for providing an information receiving program based onthe program receiving request accepted by use of said accepting means ofthe program receiving request, the information receiving program beingfor accessing a predetermined server via the network from the computerapparatus to pull a screen saver page, which is to be displayed on thecomputer apparatus.
 15. An information delivery server, which isconnected to a network and provides a computer apparatus connected tothe network with contents, the information delivery server comprising:an access accepting means for accepting access from the computerapparatus based on an action of an information receiving program for anHTML content displayed on the computer apparatus; and a deliveryinformation providing means for providing the computer apparatus withinformation delivery content in response to being accessed by thecomputer apparatus and based on the information receiving program, theinformation delivery content being automatically displayed when apredetermined entering operation is not executed for the displayed HTMLcontent.
 16. The information delivery server according to claim 15,further comprising a judgment means for judging whether or not thecomputer apparatus belongs to a predetermined group, wherein saiddelivery information providing means provides the computer apparatuswith the information delivery content being within a range predeterminedfor each predetermined group.
 17. The information delivery serveraccording to claim 15, wherein said delivery information providing ameans to refer cookie information at the time of the access from thecomputer apparatus, selects the delivery content based on the referredcookie information, and provides the computer apparatus with thedelivery content.
 18. The information delivery server according to claim15, wherein the information of a delivery content provided by saiddelivery information providing means is any one of a URL of thedestination to which the delivery content is delivered and the deliverycontent itself, in which access to the other site is not required. 19.An advertising information delivery method for delivering advertisinginformation to a viewer computer terminal via a network, saidadvertising information delivery method comprising the steps of:embedding an information receiving program in the HTML content obtainedby the viewer computer terminal; supervising an entering operation forthe viewer computer terminal by use of the information receiving programafter the HTML content is displayed on the viewer computer terminal; anddelivering the advertising information to the viewer computer terminalfrom a predetermined server via the network by access from the viewercomputer terminal when the entering operation is not executed for theviewer computer terminal for a predetermined period of time.
 20. Theadvertising information delivery method according to claim 19, whereinit is determined whether a predetermined operation is executed or notfor the viewer computer terminal, and when the specified operation isexecuted, the advertising information is delivered without awaiting apassage of the predetermined period of time.
 21. A saver page displaymethod for displaying a saver page on a viewer computer terminalequipped with a browser, comprising the steps of: obtaining a Web pagevia a network; determining whether or not a first condition is satisfiedafter the Web page is displayed by the browser; allowing the saver pageto be delivered via the network in response to an access from the viewercomputer terminal when the first condition is satisfied; displaying thesaver page delivered is displayed by use of the browser in exchange forthe Web page; determining whether or not a second condition is satisfiedafter changing to a saver mode, in which the saver page is displayed byuse of the browser; displaying the Web page by the browser when thesecond condition is satisfied.
 22. The saver page display methodaccording to claim 21, wherein the second condition is an enteringoperation previously registered as a user key.